Shooting for the Top
by Akairo Shikkoku
Summary: Tadayou Ryouichi is known as the Vagabond Ace. Someone known for drifting from unit to unit, unable to find a unit that where he feels he belongs. This soon changes upon meeting one Mokuteki Kokoro, an ambitious Operator who wants to aim for the top of Border, even if she's just a supporter. Together, they build a unit and make it through the rank wars and to make it up to the top.
1. Chapter 1: The Vagabond Ace

**Chapter 1: The Vagabond Ace.**

It had been a few weeks after the large Away Mission to Aftokrator. While the Mission was considered a success, with them finding the C-rank agents and a few of Hatohara's Collaborator, they had even found Replica in Aftokrator labs. Tamakoma 2 had lost a member of their team in Hyuse. And with clues to the whereabouts of Chika's brother, they all wanted to continue their quest to A-rank. But while they are still a competent and very strong team, they were starting to slip in rankings against the other strong B rank squads.

"So, you would like to join our unit?"

"Um. Yes. I don't want to impose on you though so you can say no."

While they were planning for the next rank battle during their month break between rank wars after losing the most recent one. A visitor came to the Tamakoma dorms looking for Tamakoma-2. He was a tall teenager dressed in what appears to be casual clothes, a black padded jacket with a dark green undershirt and black pants, as well as dark black hair and light blue eyes. When asked what he wanted from them, he gave a hesitant reply of wanting to join their unit. This wasn't exactly the first time something like this happened, as one of the 2 B teams that went on the first big publicised away mission, and the only one with an open slot after. Several B and C rank Border members wanted to join their team to bank off some of that praise. Of course, with Yuma's side effect, they were able to deduce it quickly before any long-lasting harm, but these encounters left Osamu with a healthy suspicion.

"So, why us specifically?"

"Oh…I just…well, you're not the first unit I've tried to join. All I'm trying to do really is just trying to find a unit where I can fit in, that's really all there is." Osamu turned to Yuma who gave him a nod, so far, no lies.

"Is that all? You don't have any other reasons?" In response to the question, he tilts his head lightly to the side with a confused look.

"Yeah, why? Am I supposed to have another reason?" Osamu turned to Yuma again who confirmed the fact that he wasn't lying. Now this was a bit baffling, but it was a good sign to him being genuine. And, of course, having a new teammate for the next rank war battle would help greatly.

"Well, I don't have a reason to turn you away yet. How about you come in and we can talk me."

"Uh. Thank you very much. My name's Tadayou Ryouichi. Thank you for hearing me out." He walked inside the house and followed Tamakoma-2 into the living room. Osamu thought about the guy, the first thing he noticed is his personality. He's quite shy, he fidgets a lot with his hands and hesitates before speaking. He reminds Osamu of some of the people from his school, the quiet ones that like to keep to themselves in the corner because they don't think of themselves as good at socialising. The 4 of them sat down in the couches in the living room, with Osamu facing Ryouichi across the table.

"So, I would like to know a few things about you. Your position, trigger set, how long you've been in border, basic information like that." Ryouichi nodded, before placing his head upon his palm and thinking it over.

"Well, I'm 17 years old, my position is an attacker and I primarily use the Kogetsu as my weapon of choice. My main trigger has Kogetsu, Gen'you, Shield and bagworm. While my sub triggers include Scorpion, Raygust, Thruster, and a Handgun with asteroid bullets." That's an intriguing combination of triggers, Osamu notes, an attacker that both used all 3 attacker triggers as well as a Handgun. "I've been in Border for around 2 years now and a B-rank. I have quite a bit of experience with working in teams already, but I've never been really affiliated with a proper unit. Is that all you need to know?"

"Well, one last thing. Do you mind having a battle with Yuma here, so we can have a good read of your skills?" He gives a quick nod, Yuma gives a light grin at his acceptance. "Ok then, follow us to the training room. The two of you will fight there."

By the time they had gotten set up in the training room for the fight, other members of the Tamakoma branch joined them on the way. First was Yotaro on Raijinmaru, who was interested about the visitor and wanted to tag along to see how a possible recruit for Tamakoma would be like, in his words "I gotta make sure that any new members of Tamakoma has to be up to snuff." As they were passing the rooms, they attracted the attention of Shiori, who was interested in a possible new member of Tamakoma-2. Upon learning his name though, he mentioned a something strange.

"Oh, it's been a while since I've seen the Vagabond Ace in action." This phrase caught Osamu's attention but before he was able to ask, they had reached the training room. Inside was Kizaki and Konami, already doing some training together.

"Oh, hey! what are you doing here?" Konami asked, Kizaki also stopped with his training, seemingly interested in what they are doing.

"Ah, well, someone wanted to join Tamakoma-2 and we wanted to have him fight with Yuma to test his skills because he's an attacker. His name is Tadayou Ryouichi." After being introduced, Ryouichi gave a bow to the two of them. Konami's eyes light up in surprise and Kizaki's face adopts a look of curiosity.

"Oohh… Someone is fighting with Yuma, huh? Well, as my student you better kick his butt." Yuma gave a confident thumbs up. "But Ryouichi, huh. That rings a bell in my head, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"Don't you remember? He's the Vagabond Ace." Shiori takes the moment to interject, using the same strange title as before. Konami hits her fist against an open palm after hearing the title.

"Ohhhhh. Yeah. I heard of him. Now I definitely have to watch." At this point, Osamu had to ask. His confusion over this title of Vagabond Ace rising at every second. Before he gets a chance to ask however, Chika tapped him on the shoulders. She pointed inside and both fighters were staring at the camera, with Yuma waving towards him. Likely waiting for him to start the match.

"Right, well. Ryouichi and Yuma, for this battle, it'll be a best out of 3." Both combatants gave a curt nod before turning to face each other and pulling out their triggers.

"Trigger on." Both activated their triggers at the same time, while Yuma sports his Tamakoma-2 uniform, Ryouichi sports a featureless dark grey jacket with dark blue pants. They pull out their respective weapons, Yuma with a scorpion in one hand while Ryouichi holds a Kogetsu in his right hand and a Raygust in his second in shield form. They both stare each other down, taking notes of each other weapons and stance.

"Start!"

Upon Osamu's signal, the two of them rush towards each other. Yuma rushing towards him with the grasshopper while Ryouichi uses the thruster on the Raygust to launch himself towards his opponent. However, as soon as he's in range of Yuma, he thrust the Kogetsu through the Raygust's shield at him, the shield creates a small hole for the Kogetsu to go towards. Recognizing the immediate threat, Yuma creates a grasshopper to launch himself diagonally upwards away from the blade before using the grasshopper to zoom above and behind his opponent.

Ryouichi reacted quickly after realising Yuma's intention, turning off the thruster and changing the Raygust in blade mode, he leans forward to flip himself upside down before using thrusting the blade of the Raygust into the ground to use it to twist himself around. Just in time for him to intercept Yuma's attack with a slice of his Kogetsu. Yuma twists his body to knock away the attack with his scorpion, but despite that, the attack still goes through and he is cut in half with the slice.

The training room quickly healed away the injury and Yuma's body crashes into Ryouichi. As Yuma pushes himself off his opponent and gets back into position. Osamu ponders about the outcome of the battle, not only did he quickly follow Yuma's movement, he was able to slice through his opponent with the last attack, even with the scorpion that was supposed to parry it.

"Whoa! That was slick. I almost didn't catch that myself." It appears that Konami already figured out the trick behind the attack. Osamu was going to ask but was interrupted by Shiori telling him to start the second match. As he turns to check the training room, he sees that once again, Yuma and Ryouichi were in position. This time Ryouichi was holding a scorpion in his left hand instead of the raygust, while Yuma wields two scorpions.

"Start!"

The two of them start running towards each other, Yuma is the first one in range, he combines his two scorpions together into a single mantis strike. As the long winding blade launches itself at Ryouichi, he swings both of his weapons towards it. As Yuma manipulates the attack to wind around the attack range of both weapons, suddenly the mantis is knocked out of trajectory, even though the attack was far outside the range of a single scorpion and it wasn't in a position for the Kogetsu to hit it in the same slash. Yuma quickly disengage the Mantis to form his dual blades as Ryouichi has turned his Kogetsu into a downwards slash. As he holds one Scorpion above him to block the Kogetsu blade, once again the slash goes right through it. However, before it hits Yuma, it's deflected by the second Scorpion that Yuma uses to knock away the slash. A small grin appears on Yuma's face before it's wiped away as he ducks to dodge the Scorpion slash from Ryouichi's left hand before jumping forward and slashing through Ryouichi's chest.

Once again, the training room heals the damage off, but this time, it's Yuma's win. Ryouichi gives a light sigh when he sees his opponent quirk, realising that Yuma has probably figured out the trick behind his attacks.

"I see, so that's how it works. He's using Gen'yo to change the shape of his blade to make it go through weapons and help defends." Osamu explains, realising the trick behind it too after seeing it a second time. Chika lets out a light 'Oh…' of surprise while Reiji nods to confirm his hypothesis.

"Gen'yo isn't used much due to how Senku is considered a better offensive trigger for Kogetsu, because of its longer range and better offensive power. However, Ryouichi is one of the best users of it, able to bend and change the shape of his blade quickly on the fly to pass through defences and help with parrying. It's part of what makes him so terrifying at close range. Even if Yuma's seen through the trick, it'll still be tough to fight against it." Osamu nods, after seeing it in action, he can definitely see why. A technique that both allows for an offensive edge and a defensive countermeasure, unless one was using something with a large enough defensive range like a large shield or a raygust, it'll be tough to defend properly at close range.

Yuma gives a light grin as he puts away the scorpion in his left hand. Now that he knew the trick behind the attack, he had a better idea of how to fight against it. Ryouichi meanwhile changes his sub trigger back to a Raygust in shield mode. At Osamu's command, they both started running towards each other. Yuma triggers grasshopper to start bouncing around his opponent quickly by using the pinball technique. Ryouichi looks around him frantically and is only barely able to dodge the blade of the scorpion.

He then appears to calm down before standing still, keeping an eye on Yuma's movement but not as frantically as before. Yuma takes the opportunity to strike him from behind again using the grasshopper but just before he reaches him, Ryouichi quickly starts the thruster on his raygust to backhand Yuma with the shield.

But the retaliation is a failure, Yuma made a grasshopper pad in the way of the raygust shield to bounce the trajectory so that it's launched upwards. Leaving his opponent wide open to be taken out with his scorpion blade. The attack is considered fatal, and the last round goes to Yuma. As the training room heals off his opponent's wounds, Yuma jumps off Ryouichi's body and starts walking to entrance. While Ryouichi pulls himself up and follow behind him.

As the two of them made their way outside, they are greeted by the other members of Tamakoma. Konami highfives Yuma before ruffling his hair, praising him for the battle. Shiori pats Ryouichi on the back and starts trying to initiate conversation with him while Ryouichi tries his best to respond despite his lacking social skills. Osamu walks up to Yuma and taps him on the shoulder.

"So, what did you think of his skills?" Yuma gives a light grin before giving his answer.

"Oh, he's good. If I hadn't already fought Ko multiple times, I might have been hit by that final shield bash. He also somehow managed to follow me and retaliate while I was bouncing around him with the grasshopper. Definitely worth having on our unit." Osamu nodded, but there was one final thing he had to check before he felt confident about letting Ryouichi join Tamakoma-2.

"Uh, Konami, Reiji. Can we talk in private for a second? Yuma, Chika, you might want to come along with this too." Konami gave him a look of confusion but gave him a thumbs up while Reiji just gave a simple affirmation through nodding his head. Both Chika and Yuma also nodded, and they all followed Osamu outside the training room into the hallway while Shiori kept trying to converse with Ryouichi.

"Ok then, why do you keep calling Ryouichi the Vagabond Ace?" Reiji and Konami share a worried glance before Reiji opens his mouth to explain.

"Well, Tadayou Ryouichi is a bit infamous in border, he's known for asking to join a variety of different units. But around a week after joining these units, he quits." Osamu shares a worried look with Chika and Yuma upon hearing that. "Now, from what I heard, I don't think he's doing it to be malicious. He's asked and joined a variety of units of different skill levels, but he's quit every single one of them. While some he's stayed on longer then others. He always quits in the end, he's been called the vagabond ace for this trend of drifting from unit to unit and also because of good he is, as you've seen."

"Has he given a reason for quitting?"

"Well, according to what I've heard. He's always given the same reason, 'I'm sorry, but I don't think you're the unit I'm looking for. I feel like I belong in your unit.'" Osamu adopted a look of intrigue as he ponders over those words. "In the end, I don't think it'll hurt for you to let him join your unit. Just keep in mind his reputation when you do so."

"And it would really help if you three had another teammate, losing Hyuse really hit you had. And who knows, maybe you'll be the one to finally ground this vagabond ace." Konami jumps in to give her two cents on the situation, Osamu nodded after hearing their advice before turning to Yuma and Chika.

"What do you two think?" Yuma placed a hand on his chin before giving his answer.

"I think we should have him. It wouldn't hurt to have someone as good as he is on our unit and if he quits in the end then that wouldn't affect us too much. He wasn't lying when he stated his reasons for joining the unit and I'm interested in him now."

"Well. I think it'll be fine too. I don't think he means any harm and if the two of you are fine with it then we should just let him join." Osamu nodded.

"Right, then I'll let him join for now and see how things turn up later." Reiji nodded while Konami gives a thumbs up. He walks back inside the training room with the rest following to see Shiori still conversing with Ryouichi. She appears to be talking about the Yatsuhashi unit while Ryouichi has given up talking and just nods quietly along with her words instead. Osamu waves Ryouichi over, instead of walking over right away, he appears to be trying to interrupt Shiori. But every time he tried to opened his mouth to do so, he shut it soon after and continued listening. After a bit, Osamu just walked over and tap Shiori on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, I need to talk to Ryouichi." Shiori gave a thumbs up and walked away while Ryouichi gave a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, I didn't know how to ask her to stop." Osamu gave a small sigh too, it appears his social skills are worst then he first thought. That was a problem he would need to deal with later.

"You're welcome. So, I've talked it over with the rest of Tamakoma-2 and they said it'd be fine if you were to join our group." Ryouichi's mouth turns into a happy smile upon hearing it. "However, if you don't mind. It'll only be like… A trial period for now. If you were to properly join our unit then there would be some problems with how you must join Tamakoma and transferring out of HQ. So, it's better if we have a trial period of sorts to see how you fit in before we make that kind of decision."

Ryouichi appears to think it over for a bit before nodding. Osamu gave a small smile and held out his hand. "Right, welcome to Tamakoma-2. We're glad to have you on our side." Ryouichi reached out and grabbed his hand before giving him a light handshake.

"Thank you for having me on your team. I'll try my best."

"So that's the situation, Jin. You have any advice?" Osamu had finished recounting his experience with Ryouichi to Yuichi Jin. He had invited him to a noodle shop for some advice on Ryouichi, hoping to gain more information about him and whether his strange reputation and title of the 'Vagabond Ace' would affect the team. Jin slurped down some of his noodles before giving a sly smile.

"Well, I'll tell you that you shouldn't get too attached to him. Sorry to say but he's not sticking around with Tamakoma-2 for too long." Osamu gave a sharp nod, he wasn't too surprised to hear that after hearing the story about him from Kizaki earlier. But he is disappointed that the unit will be losing another useful member. "In fact, it's very unlikely he'll even officially join Tamakoma-2, so I say to keep that in mind during your group training. It might be hard for you, but I think you can make it through the next rank wars without him." Osamu let out a disappointed sigh, he hoped that he would be able to keep Ryouichi on his unit until the next rank wars, but at least he was already accounting for that problem beforehand. And Jin confirming his fears makes it easier for him to plan around it.

"Well, thanks Jin for affirming some of my problems."

"Ah, no problem. All for my precious Kohais, you even graciously brought me out for Lunch so how could I ever refuse." Jin starts slurping up the rest of his noodles down, leaving Osamu to ponder about the next rank war. However, his thoughts are interrupted when Jin suddenly interjects.

"One last word of advice. If you're going to continue aiming for A-rank to join the next away mission, then I advise for you to keep an eye out for Ryouichi. My side effect tells me that if you want to keep rising up in the rank wars then one day, he'll be a roadblock in your path. And a particularly troublesome one too." Osamu gritted his teeth and nodded, he was hoping that wouldn't be the case and that they'd be able to make it through the next rank wars without something like that occurring.

"Thanks again, not what I wanted but guess I now have time to plan." Jin nodded again before finished up his noodles. He left the shop with a casual of his hands and Osamu was left to ponder by himself about his unit, the future to come and the strange 'Vagabond Ace' now on his team.


	2. Chapter 2: The Up-and-Comer Operator

**Chapter 2: The Up-and-Comer Operator**

Mokuteki Kokoro didn't become a resident of Mikado city until quite recently. She and her parents moved there briefly because her father's business wanted to reach out to Border and seek new opportunities with them. They were only supposed to be there for a month for discussions before moving back to their hometown. However, their short business was interrupted by something they could've never seen coming. A Neighbour Invasion.

It came out of nowhere, and there was no almost no warning. At the time, she was just lazily reading her book on her bed before her mother rushed inside and ordered her to pack the essentials because they were leaving. It was sudden and her mother gave no explanation before rushing back outside. Just barely after she had packed the bare essentials in a small bag, she had been rushed outside by her parents. They were met with a group of boys and girls in white uniform as well as other civilians. The uniformed pack of teenagers looked around the same age she was, some looked even younger. But they acted as professionally as they could with guiding the people out of the area. She knew that Border recruited agents when they were young but the people, she saw on tv looked mature and ready, they seemed older than their actual age. She always saw them as a group of teenagers who were much older and more mature then she was, but these people just seemed like a group right out of her school.

She was trekking along with them and her family when they were attacked by a group of Trion soldiers. They were ferocious, like a group of ginormous wild animals, tearing and ripping through the city. Some of the Border agents fought back with similarly strange weaponry, glowing cubes, guns of all sizes and shining blades of light. And while they were able to leave scratches on the body, they were too weak individually to leave much scratch. However, all the attacks together were able to down some of the monsters.

But out from those shells came large hulking rabbit like monsters with large ears and a variety of colours. Against them, their attacks did absolutely nothing, while the monster was able to shoot off large exploding beams. Soon these agents were soon forced to run along with us civilians as the rabbit neighbours came running towards them at a speed much faster then they could ever reach.

But their group was saved, the Neighbours was intercepted by two other people. Each in different uniforms, a girl dressed in red uniform with plain black hair holding a gun and a glowing blade of light. She recognized her from tv, one of the members from the Arashiyama unit, Kitora Ai. She was accompanied by a boy in a dark blue uniform and glasses, wielding a large yellow sword. They held off the monsters while she ran ahead, fighting off the monsters with their skills. She only took quick glances at them fighting as she ran away, the boy was able to hold off and take down one of the scuttling monster by himself while Kitora trapped the rabbit monster in a spiral of lines while she danced around it, jumping from rope to rope.

Kokoro kept running and running, faster and longer then she ever felt she's done in real life. Following the small group of C rank units still left while the others had stayed back to hold off the Neighbours. After what felt like forever, they had finally made it to an emergency centre guarded by other border members. She found her parents in the vast crowd of civilians, before sitting with them panting loudly. They complained about the invasion and how Border should've tried harder to protect them. But Kokoro was only filled with respect for them, it was built up with teenagers that were her age, some of them even younger. But they risked their lives to fight against the neighbours and protect civilians.

The wait for the invasion to end felt astronomically long. More and more civilians were being escorted to the Emergency centre, many of them injured or harmed in some way. Kokoro was hit by the realisation that both she and her family got off lucky. Even if the house they were living in for the time might be destroyed, both she and her family and unharmed and they only came here temporarily. Residents of the city have to face the threat of these Neighbours constantly and it was likely that some have been gravely injured due to them. But soon, there was an announcement that the Invasion was over. Somehow, the Border agents forced all the neighbours to retreat. Her mother and father immediately got to work, their house had only taken some damage from the attack so they were still able to recover much of their belongings. Her parents want to go back to their hometown as soon as possible, but Kokoro wasn't quite so sure. Whenever her parents talked about when they would leave, Kokoro could only feel unease.

A few days after the Invasion, a press conference was held by Border. Kokoro and her parents watched it, she wanted to know how the invasion ended and see if watching the conference can dispel the doubt in her heart. At first, it was rather normal, reporters asking about the event of the invasion and asking about why Border let something like this happened. But she learned about several distressing facts. For one, the battle didn't end without losses to border, while there was no civilian death, 32 C-ranked agents had been abducted and 6 operators had been killed. This was shocking to Kokoro, the fact that some of the border agents that helped both her and her family had risked their lives and gotten kidnapped just to ensure that the citizens could evacuate safely. The next bombshell was just as shocking, the fact that it could've been caused because one C-rank agent wanted to save people at his school. She didn't feel angry at him, instead she felt pity. That agent might have just wanted to save the people at his school, he just couldn't let them be killed, and because of that heroic action, he now has the weight of 32 lives on his soul.

But that was the smallest of the bombshells dropped at that press conference, because soon after that revelation. An injured boy in glasses walked into the press conference, barely holding himself up with crutches. She recognized him immediately, he was the boy who she saw fight off one of the neighbours during the invasion. He introduced himself as Osamu Mikumo and told the crowd that he was the agent who used the trigger. Putting himself in line of fire of the press, instead of buckling down in face of their accusations. He stood firm to his belief, answering the questions truthfully even in the face of such pressure. That day, he said a line that she holds deep to her heart.

"Forks in the road don't wait for us to be ready to choose. If I wait until all my ducks are in a row, then I might never get anything done in my lifetime. I'm not a hero. I can't do the kind of thing where everyone is pleased with the result. I can only do what I think I should do in a way I won't regret later."

These lines were inspiring to Kokoro, a boy that seemed like he was around her age, not only stood in front of that crowd of reporters without buckling. But also stuck to his ideals and kept trying to move forward despite his weaknesses. When he was asked about how he would take responsibilities for his shortcomings, he promised to the world that he would try his best to get back the victims himself. This led to the last bombshell of the conference. The announcement of the away missions, while Kokoro doesn't have the same attachment to these neighbour attacks as others, she was only an outsider to Mikudo city after all. She understood how important this announcement was to the morale of the victims of the Neighbour attacks.

That night at dinner, she made an announcement to her parents during dinner. She wanted to stay back in Mikudo City and become a border agent. This led to a large argument, her parents weren't just afraid of their daughter's life, after hearing about how dangerous being a Border agent and the casualties of the Invasion. But they also felt like she was wasting her potential and that she should just focus on school work. This is because of the achievements of her siblings; her older brother was a doctor with a medical degree while her older sister was studying a law degree in university to become a lawyer. This had led to her parents having high expectations for Kokoro and her work. Kokoro refused to buckle, even when her parents said that she would have to live on her own in Mikado city if she were to follow this path. In the end, she yelled loudly to them a promise, one to not only her parents but also herself.

"It doesn't matter what arguments you throw at me because I'm staying. Even if I have to do it by myself, I'll make my way into Border. And no matter how many obstacles in my way, I'll make it to the very top." It was a hasty promise tinged with pride and selfishness. A promise born from a desire to help, to live up to her parents' lofty expectations and to not rely on others. But despite all that, it's a promise that fuelled her resolve to keep moving forward even when things were against her.

The argument between Kokoro and her parents continued past that dinner. Her parents tried every tactic from bribing, apologies, threats and getting her siblings to talk her out of it. Despite that she refused to back down to anything, her siblings were the first to understand, choosing to take her side in this battle. In the end, her parents had to, unwillingly, back down to her decision. They would go back home to their hometown while Kokoro stayed in Mikado to follow her desires.

Unfortunately, she was hit by an impossible to breach wall at the start of her journey. When taking the exams to become a Border agent, despite her confidence in her scores for the aptitude and fitness exams. She was not accepted for being a border agent. She sought out an interview with one of the staffs of the entrance exam. That day, she learned of something that threw all her plans off track.

"I'm sorry, but frankly, you have almost no aptitude for using a trigger. There is no chance of you becoming a combat agent for Border. How about becoming an Operator or Engineer, supporting members such as them are vital to Border's infrastructure." She argued and pleaded with the staff member to let her have a chance, about methods to improve her aptitude with a trigger. But all her attempts were met with the insistence that it was impossible.

That night, she came to her apartment in overwhelming sadness, the promise that she made to her parents was considered an impossible goal. She was left with a sickening feeling of despair in the pits of her belly as she thought about having to tell her parents. All the resolve she built up to fight against the wishes of her parents would be all for naught due to reasons beyond her control. She thought back to the Invasion and remembered something about the outcome of the battle. 6 Operators had died in border during the chaos of the battle. Even though their only task was to support the agents with information, they had lost their lives too. If she were to place their roles as lesser than the Border agents, that would demean the deaths of those Operators. With that thought in her head, laid in her bed thinking about her options. In the end, she pulled out her phone and dialled a number.

"Hello, how can I apply to become an Operator?"

Just because she had chosen a different path to her goals, it didn't make the journey any easier. While she made it through the enrollment test just fine, there were a number of weaknesses that she had as an operator. The first was her talent with the technology, though in this case, it was her lack of talent when it came to Border's technology. Kokoro has always been pretty hands on when it came to doing her work. While she can navigate through a laptop just fine, she had always preferred physical methods such as using books or writing her work down. And Border's technology was quite sophisticated, much more than traditional computing technology. This led to a large difficulty curve when it came to learning the technology, lot's of studying, practicing and fumbling throughout her time training as a Central Operator. Even when she asked a few teachers to help her with the ropes and more complex tasks, she still had to spend a lot of time struggling to make sense with all the things she had to do. After 3 months of training and practicing with lots of trial and error. She can successfully say that she was…above subpar when it came to Operator technology. Enough to provide adequate support most of the time, but she was still easily overwhelmed when things got messy. So much so that she's started adding extras to her operating desk so that she doesn't have to rely solely on her subpar mechanical skills. Like a physical map of the area and sticky notes for hotkeys and reminders.

Luckily for her, being an Operator wasn't just using the technology. Kokoro found that she excelled when it came to strategizing and giving commands. While those weren't the most useful trait when it came to being a central operator, she was hoping that they would become much more useful when she started operating for a unit. All her other skills, she found, were either good or decent, it's really only her technological ability that is bad.

Even though she's an operator, she still hasn't given up her goal of reaching the top. Even if she can't become the best border agent, there's still one more thing she can aim for. One of the Upper Echelons in Administration. Whether it be one of the branch chiefs, General Manager or even Commander in Chief. She's determined to make it up there, no matter what it takes. And she even has a general plan. First, she has to make a unit, a strong one that can make it all the ways up B-rank and A-rank, next, she needs that unit to be able to earn the recognition and achievements needed to be acknowledged. And she even knows the right person to recruit first, someone who's decently well known in Border already for being a strong and effective fighter while still having attached himself to a unit yet.

"Now that I have the chance, I've finally found you. Tadayou Ryouichi."

For the few days after Ryouichi started his trial period with Tamakoma-2, Osamu learned a number of things about him. The first and most obvious one was his shyness. He's quite bad with talking to other people and would rather stay quiet while letting others talk. He's also quite the pushover, doing and agreeing with most people say. He wasn't even gullible like Konami, he just doesn't like social confrontation so he would rather just agree with the person. When Osamu asked Yuma to take Ryouichi along with his meetup with Kageura and Murakami, this doormat nature of his caused a lot more trouble than expected.

"Hey! You finally made it shrimp, took you long enough too. And who's the wuss behind you?" Murakami was already there waiting and greeted them with a wave, Yuma greeted the two with a raise of his hands while Ryouichi gave a shy wave of his hands.

"Sorry, I was escorting someone here. He's Tadayou Ryouichi, a new member of Tamakoma-2. Well, he's an unofficial one for now. These two are Kageura Masato and Murakami Ko."

"Um… Thank you for letting me join you three." He slowly reaches out his hand to the two of them. Ko lightly shook it while giving an introduction of his own. But Kageura slapped the hand away.

"Hey Shrimp. Are you sure you should have him join? He doesn't seem all that strong, like a meek little mouse. You don't have any room for dead weights anymore you know. You'll just be giving your opponent free points. And all I feel from him is fear, absolutely no spine or backbone to be had." With ever word, Ryouichi appears to shrink more and more. But Yuma response was accompanied with a challenging grin and a biting retort.

"I don't think you should underestimate him. Despite his looks, he's quite fierce in battle. I bet he'll be more than a match for you." Upon hearing those words, Ryouichi lightly shakes Yuma's shoulders asking him to not antagonize him while Kageura fixes him with a fierce glare. He gives a scoff before pointing to Ryouichi.

"If that's the case. You and me, one on one solo rank match, 10 battles. If you've impressed the shrimp, then you just might be someone worth fighting." Ryouichi glanced worryingly at Yuma whose only response was a single thumbs up. He turned back to Kageura before giving a nervous nod of affirmation. After the confirmation, Kageura turned around and stalked off to the solo rank battle rooms while Ryouichi hurriedly followed behind him. With Yuma and Ko staying behind to watch. Ko turned to Yuma with a worried look.

"Do you think he'll be fine? Kageura was right when he said that he didn't seem like much."

"Don't worry about him. He has more backbone behind him then you first think. He'll do just fine against Kageura."

The battle itself was relatively quick, they were both attackers with a very aggressive close range fighting style, making it so that a single mistake usually ended the match right there. Right off the bat, Ryouichi quickly took the lead, stealing 2 points from Kageura by taking him off guard by his unexpectedly aggressive fighting style and versatile usage of Gen'you. However, Kageura quickly adapted, learning to dodge and block the attacks before winning 3 consecutive points with his quick attacks, dangerously fast battle reflexes and side effects. The next few matches devolved into back and forth when it came to points. As both fighters use every trick they know to steal a point off the other one, from Kaguera making unexpected attacks using his advanced manipulation of the Scorpion to Ryouichi attacking him from unexpected angles by creating gaps in his raygust shield. Their opponents quickly adapted to these strategies, with Ryouichi learning to quickly dodge and parry the varied attacks to Kageura quickly predicting the placements of holes using his side effect and then exploiting them to get a surprise attack. In the end, Kageura barely took the final match to end it with a 6-4.

As the two left the room, Ryouichi is met with a pat on the back by Yuma and an approving nod from Ko.

"That was a really good battle you two." Yuma glanced over at Kageura who was stalking just behind him. "So, what do you think? Not the mouse you first thought, right?" Kageura responded with a light scoff.

"When he fights, it's like a switch is flipped. He's just focussed on is cutting down his opponent before his opponent can cut him down. All I felt from him during that battle was light pricks of focused points of interest all over my skin and the light emotion of happiness once he succeeded in his attack." Ryouichi scratches his chin abashedly while Yuma nods agreeingly with that statement.

"Well…people say that when I'm focussed on something, I can become a bit intense. Be it fighting, studying or doing work." Yuma pats him lightly on the back while Kageura sneers.

"A bit intense? Behind your puppy dog exterior lies a ferocious wolf. Don't be embarrassed about it. It shows that you deserve to be in Border. Hey, Ko, I want to get a fight in with you too." As Ko agrees to the battle and walks inside with Kageura, Ryouichi and Yuma stay outside to watch.

"So, what do you think of the two? Osamu was a bit scared that Kageura would be too much for you."

"Well. I guess he's pretty scary, but I think he's a nice person, even if I'm a bit scared to approach him. And Murakami seems like a nice person too." Yuma grins at his answer. "I have a question though, for some reason, Kageura kept seeing through my attacks. Well, I'm not trying to say that he shouldn't have, he seems to be a really good attacker. But sometimes when I try to attack him with attacks that he shouldn't see coming, he still dodges or blocks them. He also talked a lot about emotions and things like that, why does he do that?...Not that I'm judging him or anything, I'm just curious."

"Well, Kageura side effect is that he can sense emotions, when someone directs emotions at him he can feel it on the parts of his body. That's why he saw through your attack, your emotions gave away where you were going to do."

"Ahhh. Does that mean he knows that I was scared of him? I didn't want to be rude by letting him know."

"Tadayou, I'm sorry but I don't think you need a side effect to figure that out."

Despite his personality, Ryouichi was quite good on the field. At first, he struggled with what he had to do in the team. Struggling to position themselves properly and afraid to get in the way of their previous chemistry. But after a few training sessions, he quickly started to fit right in. Figuring out how to cover Yuma's attacks or assaults and positioning himself to intercept Trion soldier if they were going for Chika or Osamu. He was efficient on the battlefield and backed up the team perfectly as their second ace. While he lacked Hyuse's coverage of Escudos and vipers, he more than made up for it with efficient defensive coverage with the raygust and being a good offensive support with his multitude of different trigger options. Defence patrols go by a lot smoother then before and Ryouichi has started to find a place in the team, even if he's still quite shy.

Unfortunately, this team dynamic wasn't meant to last long. It happened a few days after Ryouichi started his trial period on Tamakoma-2. Yuma and Ryouichi who had finished another small fighting session with Midorikawa, Murakami and Kageura. They were waiting for Osamu and Chika would arrive before doing a few rank battles as a team for more practice.

"I think you're getting used to their moves, Midorikawa used to completely outmatch you with his grasshoppers but you've started countering properly to steal some wins." Yuma and Ryouichi were sitting in the lounge area outside the rank battle rooms, Yuma was talking to Ryouichi about their recent fights with the others while Ryouichi listened, while sometimes interjecting with small remarks, a sign that he's gotten more used to Yuma then before.

"Excuse me, are you Tadayou Ryouichi?" A girl had walked up to the two before suddenly asking them about Ryouichi. She had dark black hair, tied back into a ponytail as well as sharp brown eyes. She stood tall at a decent height, around 160 if he were to guess, wearing the Operator Uniform that consisted of a black suit with orange lines, white collared undershirt as well as a matching miniskirt and stockings. Ryouichi adopted a nervous glance as he wonders why she is looking for him before giving a silent nod. "Right! You're the one I've been look for. The Vagabond Ace."

"Huh? You've been looking for me? Why would you need someone like me?" The girl adopts a confident grin and her sharp eyes lock onto him, Ryouichi fidgets nervously at her increased attention while Yuma takes an inquisitive look.

"I've been looking for you because I need your help. I'm Mokuteki Kokoro, and since you're not currently in a unit, I would like you to make a unit with me and help me reach the very top of Border."

"Eh?! Me? Are you sure you want someone like me? I don't think I'm as good as you think I am."

"Of course, you're just perfect. A highly skilled fighter in B-rank that's not affiliated with an official unit? Once you've finally took a break in your aimless wandering, I had to take a chance."

"But…um…I don't want to burst your bubble but…"

"He's already in a Unit. Though I guess not officially." Yuma pipes up, answering for Ryouichi. Kokoro turns to him shocked and disappointed, she then takes a good look at him. She was focussed on her target, so she didn't notice who he was with but.

"You're…from Tamakoma-2 aren't you?"

"Um, yes. Sorry for troubling you after you came all this way to find me but I'm currently in a unit. You can talk to my captain though. He just made it here now." At this point, Osamu and Chika had made it to the Lobby area and caught sight of the three of them. Ryouichi and Yuma waves at them while Kokoro turns to their direction.

"Oh, hello. Who are you? Did you want something from us?"

"Hello. My name is Mokuteki Kokoro, and I would like to apologize for trying to recruit a member of your unit, Tadayou Ryouichi, without permission." Her tone suddenly changes when she talks to Osamu, adopting a more formal one in comparison to the casual voice she used when trying to recruit Ryouichi.

"Ah. No worries. He hasn't been registered officially on my unit yet so I can understand if you didn't know. But why him in particular? You do know about his reputation, I'm sure there are others you can find." Ryouichi nods his head, passively agreeing with Osamu's statement.

"Well, that's simple. When I heard about him at first, he seemed like one of those kids at school. The shy ones that stick to themselves in the corner, the ones that want to reach out and make friends, but their shyness and lack of social abilities makes it hard to do so. I just thought that I could kill two birds with one stone, he could use his skills to help me out to achieve my goals, and I can help him make a unit and friends. That's all. But if you already have a unit that you're in then that's fine too, I'll find another way to make it through." Kokoro stated that as if it was a matter of fact, like it was something simple. But, Ryouichi felt both shocked and joyous that someone would think of reaching a hand out to him. He turned to the rest of Tamakoma-2 before turning back to Kokoro. Weighing up his choices before ultimately turning towards Osamu and bowing down to him.

"I'm really sorry for this. But I would like to resign from Tamakoma-2 so I can create a unit with Kokoro here and help her achieve her dreams. I hope you can forgive me." As Osamu listened to Ryouichi's apology and desire to resign, Jin's words went flashing through his head. After a few seconds of thinking, he gave a single sigh.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be fine. I think Tamakoma-2 can make it without your help. Can you stop bowing to me though, it feels weird." Ryouichi hurriedly straightens his back after Osamu's request.

"Thank you very much Osamu, Yuma and Chika. Um…Can we still be friends?" Osamu, Yuma and Chika smiles after hearing Ryouichi's nervous request before all of them nod, and his faces breaks into a happy grin.

"So, hope you won't have any hard feelings when we knock you down to get to the top." Yuma gives a feisty smile upon hearing Kokoro's challenging words.

"Just as long as you don't mind when we win against you." And with that, the two groups depart, Ryouichi now following behind Kokoro with Tamakoma-2 back to their three people lineup. Both teams filled with anticipation for the rank war to come.


	3. Chapter 3: The Berserker Gunner

**Chapter 3: The Berserker Gunner.**

"So, I know I talked big about how I wanted you to help me reach the top of Border, but if I want to do that then I'll probably need more than just you in the unit." Ryouichi nodded in response to her question. The two of them were undergoing discussion in Kokoro's room at her apartment that she was renting for cheap. While Ryouichi was initially filled with apprehensions about entering someone else's room, much less a room belonging to someone of the opposite gender. Kokoro just pushed him inside before he had a chance to raise any nervous objections. The room was quite normal. Other than a few extra accessories like a bookshelf, a keyboard and some plush toys on her bed. The room was rather featureless, from the clear white walls to the ordinary bed frame and futon as well as the small table that the two were seated around.

"Well…how should we go about looking for members?" Ryouichi proposed, wondering where Kokoro was going to go with this meeting. The two of them had just formed a unit together. A rather lacklustre process despite the importance of it. They filled out a form, decided on the small details before handing it into administration and getting it approved. The only thing of note was how the captain was chosen, with Kokoro being appointed as the captain of the Unit. While she was a little shocked and honoured that Ryouichi would let her be the leader, whereas Ryouichi was just glad that he didn't have to lead anyone.

"Well. Why don't we just start with the tried and true method of making friends in border." Ryouichi becomes confused and intrigued. "You go to the B-rank solo battle room and fight some random agents." And his intrigue immediately turns into disappointment.

"Um…Not trying to be rude. But are you sure that's the best idea? Wouldn't it be better for you to… well, go out and find someone? If we do the ranked battle thing, it would be me talking to them, and I'm not very good at socialising."

"What do you mean? It has to be you who meets them first. I told you already, I wanted to help you make a unit where you feel like you belong. So, you need to be the one to see them first." Kokoro shoots a smile at Ryouichi and he looks away embarrassed. "And don't worry about messing up, I'll be here to back you up if you need it. Just be yourself and do the best you can." Ryouichi nodded, now more confident with the task.

The first few matches were a failure when it came to finding a new teammate. He fought a whole bunch of different types of agents, fighting at least one from each of the positions. Most of the time, they were quite easy to beat, attackers were the one that were the easiest for Ryouichi. He rushed up to them with thruster before taking them down with the Kogetsu + Gen'you combo or outclassed them with his superior offensive skill. Snipers were the hardest for him, requiring him to go hunting them down with a bagworm on and a raygust out for defence, luckily those fights were only 1 or 3 rounds battle. Though that wasn't to say that he defeated everyone he challenged as there were many that were able to give him a challenge or beat him, from a girl dressed in purple and black that used both scorpions and handguns. To a girl with ash blond hair who outplayed him with tricky viper patterns. Unfortunately, all the good agents were already in units of their very own and appeared to be unwilling to leave them.

The two were beginning to lose hope in this method. While it did get them to meet and learn about some of the skilful and powerful agents in B-rank. It didn't seem to help them in find any new potential teammates, all the good B-ranks that they've found were already taken. They both decided that Ryouichi would go for one or two more matches before it's back to the drawing board. Ryouichi scrolls down the list of agents before taping on a random one. Their main trigger appears to be a shotgun with a point total of 5479. As he tapped on the icon to challenge them to a fight, a best of three, the request was accepted almost immediately. A moment later, Ryouichi was on the familiar battlefield of Cityscape A in his Trion body. Just a few metres in front of him, another person was teleported into the battle. She was a girl with short brown hair, with dark red streaks running through it, her eyes were of a dark green. She was dressed in a black tank top with a green jacket tied around her waist and green pants.

"Um…Hello. My name is Tadayou Ryouichi. Let's have a fair battle." Ryouichi pulls out his raygust and Kogetsu, remembering that the girl's main trigger was a shotgun. The girl gives a fierce grin in response as she pulls out 2 shotguns in both arms.

"Sure sure! I'm always down for a thrilling battle. The name's Okazaki Naoko." She quickly took aim at him with her two shotguns. Taking that as a sign to start, Ryouichi changes the Raygust to shield mode before rushing towards with thruster. But his charge is interrupted when she shot the Shotgun in her right arm, a barrage of bullets quickly turned into a large wall of explosions. Creating a small crater as well as a large wall of smoke. Quickly disengaging the thruster, he landed on the ground again, skidding forward with the raygust shield open forward as another blast of asteroid bullets burst from the cloud of smoke. With most of them impacting the sturdy raygust shield, one managed to follow a trajectory under Ryouichi's defence and graze his exposed leg. While it wasn't a direct hit, the leaking trion marks the first blood drawn. Ignoring the small wound, he engaged the thruster again to burst forward again, though this time slight upwards, thrusting him diagonally upwards.

Ryouichi bursts through the cloud of smoke and sees that Naoko is now holding a Raygust in shield mode in her left hand. As he rushes up to her, the girl unloads another round of asteroid bullets at him with her shotgun while slowly backing away. A full guard from his raygust shield and the usage of his regular shield to help cover it stopped him from taking a second hit. Ryouichi manages to catch up to her before she can shoot another round and transforms the Raygust back to sword mode. As he descends towards her and does a horizontal slash to the left. Instead of the blade bouncing off Naoko's raygust shield, the sword instead morphs. It curves around the sides of the shield and hooks onto it, before Ryouichi continues pulling it to the left. Unprepared for this move, Naoko is unable to react properly and her shield is pulled along with the blade, exposing herself.

Wasting no time, Ryouichi quickly slashes at her with the Kogetsu. But before the blade can connect, Naoko pulls her shield out of the grasp of his Raygust. She then uses the thruster to launch herself backwards quickly. Though at first it seems she wasn't cut by the Kogetsu, a large cut is on her right arm, and leaking trion. Despite that though, she still had a large grin on her face. As Ryouichi attempts to follow her, she switches her raygust into a shotgun and shoots both at the same time. This creates a large barrage of asteroid bullets, forcing Ryouichi to change his raygust back into a shield to defen d against it properly. As he patiently waits for the lull in her offence so he can take the initative, a large explosion suddenly occurs right behind him. The shockwave of the explosion knocks him forward, and Naoko quickly took the opportunity to shoot one more round of asteroid bullets while he is exposed. He is unable to defend against it in his current conditions and the bullets pierces his trion body. Causing him to bail out and lose the first match.

Meanwhile, Kokoro was watching his battle outside in the lobby. With the benefit of being a spectator, she saw how Naoko was able to pull off that final attack. During the distraction caused by the first barrage of meteora bullets. She had pulled out a grenade launcher and shot it upwards. The grenade has rose upwards before arcing back downwards during gravity, Naoko had lured him to that spot. It was likely that she was prepared to defend against him with the raygust shield briefly and then run away when the grenade was about to hit the ground. But Ryouichi had pried open her defences quickly, causing her to retreat prematurely. So, she used the barrage of Asteroid bullets from the double shotguns to stall him until the grenade drops down and detonates.

Unfortunately for Ryouichi, he has no clue what had happened to him in the end of that battle. One moment, he had the edge by taking the first successful attack. And the next, he was hit by a large explosion and then filled with bullets. Thinking through the battle, he tries to find clues about how it could've occurred but is struck with nothing. And soon, this moment of thinking was soon interrupted by the voice of his opponent.

"Thinking about what happened? Can't blame you for that, the whole thing all went by pretttttyyyy fast. And it is a pretty neat trick behind it. But I have to remind you that the clock is ticking. Well, my clock really since I can get bored quickly, and this battle just seems way too fun to abandon. So, get back into the ring already, then do all your emo inner reflection junk after everything's all done." As Naoko's voice rings through the room, Ryouichi gives a light sigh, while she could've been more polite about it, she was right. It would be rude for him to hold up the battle. He pulls himself off the bed, his mind racing as he thinks about how to approach the next match.

Once again, he enters Cityscape A in his Trion body. This time, Naoko was already holding two shotguns, her posture lazy as she let the two weapons rest on her shoulder and leg. Upon noticing him, her lazy posture becomes tense and a large grin appears on her face again.

"Finallyyyy. I thought you were going to sit there and mope forever. Bring out your triggers already and let's get started." Ryouichi pulls out the familiar trigger set of a Raygust Shield and a Kogetsu, his guard ready for a blast from her multiple shot guns. Upon seeing him manifest the triggers in his hand, Naoko took the opportunity to aim her right shotgun at him before shooting. Once again, this creates a large wall of explosion before round of asteroid bullets come rushing through the smoke. Ryouichi was prepared and took the attacks with his Raygust, he steps a bit backward to stay out of her range before activating the thruster on his Raygust. Instead of using it to fly forward, he directs it so that it swings his arm at a fast speed, blowing away the screen of smoke. This unveiled the secret behind the trick, as he caught Naoko red handed holding a large grenade launcher. First adopting a sheepish look, it quickly turned into a large grin before she shoots a large barrage of meteora grenades into the air. He quickly scanned the incoming bullets before making a quick decision, twisting his raygust, he activates his thruster to launch him sideways inside of a house, a salvo of asteroid bullets streaking past his previous position. Knowing that the house will likely be blown down by Naoko and her variety of meteora bullets. He started quickly thinking of a plan.

Naoko couldn't resist a grin as she prepared another volley of meteora bullets from her trusty grenade launcher. Angling her grenade launcher, she pulled the trigger and shot out multiple meteora grenades. BOOM! The explosion tore through the house, leaving a cloud of rubble and smoke, as she narrowed her eyes to peer through the smoke. She switches her sub trigger to Raygust, just in case you know, with a grin dancing on her lips as she scans the cloud of smoke. After a minute, just as she was about to start shooting some asteroid rounds, something strange came quickly zooming out of the smoke cloud, some kind of weird black rectangle being pulled along by…a Raygust! She quickly pulls up her raygust shield out of reflex, before it suddenly becomes destroyed by the projectile raygust, and the rectangle joins it, wrapping around her. And as she struggled to pull the object off her, a kogetsu sword pierced through the carpet, slicing through her chest and cutting off her trion supply. As the automated warning rang through her ear and she bailed out, she wondered in confusion about what happened at the end.

Kokoro pumped her fist in joy, happy to see her partner's plan work out. Ryouichi's plan was simple but inspired, quickly taking stock of the materials around him, He pulled down a curtain black curtain before shielding himself from the onslaught of meteora grenades. He then hooked the curtain to his raygust before throwing at Naoko with the thruster active. The raygust dragged along the black curtain, breaking through Naoko's own raygust shield and pulling the curtain around her. He then took advantage of the opportunity that he created to quickly take down Naoko before she could recover. She inwardly patted herself on the back in pride for choosing to recruit Ryouichi into her unit…Well, future unit, her point still stands.

Meanwhile, waiting in the arena for Naoko to re-enter, Ryouichi let out a sigh of relief. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure a gambit like that would work, but he felt that he needed to quickly take back the initiative before Naoko can pressure him into midrange again. As he thought over the brash demolitionist, her voice rang through the intercoms again.

"Hey! That was a sick trick you did there! How did you do it?" The girl's voice eager as can be.

"Well, you se-" Ryouichi began to explain before he was cut off again.

"Actually. Don't tell me. It'll be more interesting if I don't know. I knew you would be a fun one to fight. Let's make this last round a fun one." Naoko quickly interjected, cutting off Ryouichi. Before Ryouichi can react, her trion body rematerializes back in the cityscape again, still with the same grin on her face. "Now let's get this started."

As Ryouichi shifted the grip of his kogetsu, before quickly pulling out his handgun in his sub trigger before laying some asteroid shots towards Naoko as he ran for cover. She dodged a few shots though she had to rely on her shields for the rest as she switched her sub to her asteroid shotgun. Luckily for Ryouichi, a quick switch to raygust and a boost of the thruster was all that was needed for him to get behind adequate cover before the asteroid bullets hit him.

He quickly realised that being stuck in a narrow alleyway when his opponent was wielding dual shotguns was likely not a wise decision for his chances of winning. Pulling out his kogetsu, he makes 4 quick slashes against the right wall before kicking down the square he cut and diving through the newly made hole. Just in time too if the asteroid bullets whizzing through the alleyway just were any indication. Glancing at the area he just broke into, a basic living room with furniture, couches and a tv, he leaps over the large sofa before kicking it at the hole, blocking the bottom half of it off, an early precaution to hinder his opponent's entrance. He then ran for the tv, pulling as the chord. Just in time for Naoko to jump into the room. Quickly switching to Raygust shield before throwing the tv at Naoko. The shotgun blast impacts his shield but the thrown tv manages to smash into Naoko and throw her off balance. He quickly follows this up with the thruster, smashing into her and trapping her against the wall. Naoko herself quickly switches to raygust to form a shield between her and his Raygust. But Ryouichi takes the peculiar decision to stab his kogetsu into the ground.

Naoko spins her asteroid shotgun around to shoot behind her into the wall. A round at such close range destabilised the wall and a slam of her trion body was enough for her to crash outside. But as she lands on the ground, she notices the distinct black smoke, indicating a trion cut. Taking a quick check of her body, she spies a long cut running through her left leg. A glance at her previous position immediately identified the cause. A long blade emerging out of the ground she was just standing out, and once Ryouichi pulled out the Kogetsu he had stuck into the ground, the blade disappeared underneath the ground.

Her grin grew further despite the injury, a quick activation of her thruster pulled her backwards as she switched to a meteora shotgun to shoot a salvo of the explosive rounds, covering her escape and buying her the time she needs to quickly pull herself up and change to her asteroid shotgun. A close call too, as some asteroid bullets shoot out of the smoke, impacting with her previous position. Ryouichi quickly rushes out of the smoke cloud using his thruster, taking a sideways slash with the kogetsu, she quickly turns the raygust shield to him and Ryouichi uses his shield hooking technique again with his kogetsu. This time she was prepared though, already having her shotgun aimed at him and her finger already pulling the trigger.

Instead of using his raygust shield to defend though, he does something even more unconventional, using the morphing of his raygust shield to morph it around the muzzle of the shotgun. The impact of the bullets were strong, but condensed raygust shield withstood the shot. Out of instinct, she quickly tries to pull the shotgun hard to escape the raygust grip, but the raygust quickly disappears, causing her to pull with too much force and trip backwards. Taking advantage of her mistake, he quickly pulls throws his open palm forward, impacting with her chest before scorpion blade appears outwards, cutting through the supply system.

For the second time in a row, the automated voice warned her off her trion bodies condition before she disappeared in a pillar of light. As she laid on the bed, she flailed her body in frustration while yelling incomprehensibly. Stupid attackers and their quick take downs, she was so sure she had him that round. After a tiny temper tantrum, she pulls herself off the bed to check her points. Well, at least it didn't fall too much in point rankings. As she walks outside back to the waiting area, a bashful Ryouichi was getting a pat on the back by a jubilant Kokoro. She couldn't help but grin watching the two. Walking up to behind Ryouichi, she joined Kokoro in the patting Ryouichi's back.

"Nice one, you made up for your lack of firepower with ingenuity, that was a fun battle there. Even if I lost."

"Uh…Sorry. I get really…uh…focussed when I fight." Ryouichi said apologetically, leading to Naoko flicking him on the forehead.

"Don't be. I just said that was a fun fight. I hope to have one again someday, yaknow?" Naoko said cheerfully, before walking away. Ryouichi glances at Kokoro before talking.

"Uh, I think she'd be good…As a teammate" Kokoro raised an eyebrow as she thought back on the battle before nodding herself.

"Yeah. I think so too." She runs up to Naoko to catch up to her before clapping her on the shoulder. Naoko turns around with confusion plainly evident on her face.

"Eh? Whatcha want now?"

"Well. You see, me and Ryouichi. We want to form a unit, but we don't know anyone else who can join." Naoko broke into a smile, quickly catching on.

"Heyyyy, and you're thinking about me? Little old me, joining your unit." A nod from Kokoro was her only answer. "Well, I think that might be pretty fun. But are you sure about this, I admit, I might just be a bit of a loose cannon."

"Don't worry about it, I'll make it work. As captain and operator of this unit." Kokoro said confidently, leading Naoko to give an even bigger grin.

"Captain eh. Well, I was never one for all that commanding and planning stuff. And that Ryouichi guy doesn't really seem like the kind of person to do so either. Too much of a doormat really." Naoko reached her hand out, open. "I look forward to working with you, little miss…."

"Kokoro. Mokuteki Kokoro. And I'll be happy to have you on the team." Kokoro said, grasping Naoko's hand in a firm shake.


End file.
